Book Review - Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach to Health and a Whole-Foods Lifestyle

Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach to Health and a Whole-Foods Lifestyle

By Diane Sanfilippo

 

Rating **** 1/2 (4 1/2 stars)

This review is for the Kindle version of Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach to Health and a Whole-Foods Lifestyle. While I do not usually make a distinction there is no tear out guides, and it may be missing some charts. I am not thrilled when there is a drastic difference from a print copy and a kindle copy. However, I have never seen the book in print, so the difference is only hearsay at this point.

This is a three part book. The first part of the book is paleo non fiction nutrition information. The information is amazing. I learned so much, I can completely understand why Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach to Health and a Whole-Foods Lifestyleis held up as one of the gold standards of paleo nutrition books. One of the biggest things I took away from this section was an appreciation for the types of oils I am consuming when I do eat food not prepared in my home. This is just a small part of the information included in this section. I my opinion this is worth the price of the book alone.

The middle part of the book is a collection of 30 day meal plans. There are plans for autoimmune conditions, diabetes, sugar cravings, weight loss, general paleo, cancer, and several others. I like how she broke it down for each concern and helps the reader to focus their diet. I do see myself coming back to this section to help my body further heal. At this point I am just happy I eat vegetables.

The third section is for the recipes. This is where the book lost a half a point in the rating. Do not get me wrong, all of the recipes are amazing. There is a wide variety of main courses, vegetable sides, dips, and even desserts. The problem is that to fully implement these recipes you would need to take off work, and postpone family obligations, so that you can actually learn to cook like this. While almost all the recipes had me hungry and longing, the sad reality is that they would be way too time consuming for most of them. I do not see how anyone could hold down a job and eat like this for thirty days. That is not taking into account kids - or other stressors. It would be even harder if you did not cook before eating paleo.

Makes me wish that I had a nanny/cook and I could come home to one of these meals already prepared.

Book Review - Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

Death by Food Pyramid: How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health

by Denise Minger

Rating  ***** (5 Stars)

Death by Food Pyramidis an unbiased nutrition book. By this I mean that the author does not start the book with a particular food slant. That is not to say that the author does not have a history with food. It is her own malnutrition eating vegetarian that lead her to research what research has actually told us about food. Ultimatly this book is about the disconnect between research and education.

When working with humans, and specifically the diet of humans, it is difficult to have a true research experiment. Which is why a lot of the research has been observational research. No cause and effect can be drawn from these studies, however they still can provide a lot of interesting information which can lead to future research studies. Death by Food Pyramidgoes into a variety of research, and does a great job explaining how to interpret the data, and apply it to our own diet.

The second aspect of the book is exploring the education of nutrition. This is what is being taught to students, and what is being disseminated to the general publication. Do you remember learning about the food pyramid in elementary school? I bet they forgot to mention that it was mostly created by lobbying and who had the most financial pull. It is completely disconnected from the science of nutrition.

My favorite aspect of the book is that the reference section is about a third of the book. If a book is trying to say something, and it does not cite its sources, then do not listen. If it does cite its sources, then use them to further explore the topic.

This is a must addition to any library on nutrition.

Book Review - A Little Bit Can Hurt

A Little Bit Can Hurt: The Shocking Truth About Food Allergies Why We Should Care What We Can Do

by Donna DeCosta, MD

Rating *** (3 Stars)

When I think of food allergies I immediately think of gluten and dairy. I will then go to analyze the sulfur level in various foods - since I have an intolerance to sulfur as well. I was excited to pick up this book, because I wanted to understand how consuming even a little bit of gluten will affect my intolerant daughter. 

Except that is not what this book is about - at all. This book is mainly about allergies that can cause a child to go into anaphylaxis shock. It talks a lot about peanut allergies and tree nut allergies. It does also mention diary allergies. 

The book is divided into sections. In the first section you receive stories from various areas of their lifespan - starting at infancy and ending to adulthood. The stories are helpful for individuals to empathize with - an I am not alone kind of thing. They do not provide a wealth of information. You do receive some more information in the second section, which is where medical providers, educators, and community members write about their expertise. 

Overal the book does not provide a whole lot of information on allergies. It is more along the theme of you are not alone, and people do successfully manage their allergy. The biggest problem that I had from the book (besides from it's very generic title) is that everyone in the book is a sample of convenience. By this I mean that they were all connected to the same support group - possibly even all members of just one meeting location. This only provides a limited perspective. Even the medical professionals and community members were all connected to the same support group. While it is not certain if the educational professionals are, the author did not go out of their way there either. Both educators for from the same PRIVATE school. Even though one teacher is in preschool and one in early education you do not get a vary different perspective since they are both from the same school.

The best thing about this book is that it got me thinking about the effect of my daughter's lunch box on children at her school. Yet at the same time it frustrated me. The parents in the book were not very sympathetic to children who only eat peanut butter. It was a your kid can starve because my kid is allergic. Since my child WILL STARVE herself rather then eat a non preferred food I was not very happy with this attitude. However, I have talked with my daughter about how to make sure that she does not contaminate her friends with a peanut allergy. For example she should always wash her hands after she eats. Also, she should never share food with her friends with a nut allergy since we often bake with almond flour and they could be allergic. 

Book Review - The Autism and ADHD Diet: A Step-by-step Guide to Hope and Healing by Living Gluten Free and Casein Free (GFCF) and other Interventions

The Autism and ADHD Diet: A Step-by-step Guide to Hope and Healing by Living Gluten Free and Casein Free (GFCF) and other Interventions

by Barrie Silberberg

Rating: ** (2 stars)

 

 

I did not go into reading this book neutral. See, I wanted to love this book. I was excited to read it. While getting my Master's degree I searched for research on the GFCF diet for children with Autism. I was not very successful in my search. I could not see many empirical studies looking at the GFCF diet. Yet, I knew that L is as functioning today because I removed gluten early in her life. I know her behaviors are better now that it is out. I also know that S responds very badly to sugar. I know, with my own antidotal evidence, that diet can affect behavior. Surly this book would help point me to the research that is out there.

 

 

The book starts out strong. There is the author's own success story, followed by fact after fact after fact. Yet, there is one thing missing. There is no information to back up any claim that the author has made. There is no references, footnotes, or any scientific resource included in the book. Sure there are tons of web address - half of them are message boards.

 

Add to that the actual diet that is proposed. What is the point of removing gluten to replace it with high carb/low glycemic flours such as rice or potato flour? This is how we first approached the GFCF diet many years ago. My children ate processed GFCF food which was still junk. S went crazy with all the sugar in her body. The result is we went off the diet. This potential is mentioned in the book briefly near the end.

 

The book also includes testimonials of the diet by other families. I was not very moved by this. I wanted evidence not other people's opinions. The author then went on to fill a lot of the book with information on other therapies. Once again I was not impressed. I purchased the book for information on the GFCF diet not occupational therapy. My kids have been in that for years. In fact the only therapies mentioned that my children have not been in is the more controversial biomedical approaches such as chelation or the hypobaric chamber.

 

I really wish that there was some golden gem hidden in this book making it worth reading. Instead what I found was a collection of half truths with greater truths hidden in the text.


Book Review - Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar - Your Brain's Silent Killers

Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar - Your Brain's Silent Killers

by. David Perimutter

 

Rating ****1/2 (4 1/2 stars)

 

I loved this book! I really wanted to give it a five star rating, however there were two things that held me back. I will get to that in a bit. First, why do I love this book? Grain Brain combines all the research on the impact of gluten and carbs and presents it from a neurological perspective. While the main topic of the book seems to be about preventing dementia and Alzheimer's he also provides examples about Tourette's and ADHD. There is even a small section about autism and mood disorders (bipolar).

When I was in graduate school the general consensus was that there is no research to support the gluten free diet for children on the autism spectrum. While Dr. Perimutter provides anecdotal evidence from his neurology practice to support the claims he is making, he thankfully continues to back up his claims with peer reviewed journal articles. While the research specifically on autism spectrum disorders and the effects of gluten may be sparse, there is research showing the effects of gluten on the brain in general. Dr. Perimutter claims that everyone will be better served by adopting a low carb, gluten free diet. However, there are people who are unknowingly more susceptible to gluten, and many of these individuals have conditions such as diabetes, ASD, mood disorders, schizophrenia, or ADHD, to name a few.

The book also contains great information on the impact of fasting. He also explores how sleep, or the lack of sleep, effects our cognitive abilities. There are also a few easy recipes in the back of the book mostly geared towards individuals who have never eaten gluten free before.

Why did I take off half a star?

The first reason is that I do not think that Dr. Perimutter made his claim on the harm of sugar to the brain. He continually mentions the impact of sugar, lumping all sugar including fruit together. Then he shortly says well if you are going to eat sugar then fruit is a lot better then processed sugar. However, even then he does not really provide the evidence to back up his claims. From my own experience I completely agree with him - however, that is not much good without the evidence to back it up. Then when he creates his list of what to eat and what not to eat he never mentions the acceptability of honey and completely outlaws agave. I admit that agave is pretty controversial, specifically for individuals eating Paleo. What I want is evidence about why it is bad for you, or good for you. And why no honey but you are allowed to occasionally put cow's milk in your tea or coffee? That makes no sense to me.

Which brings me to the second problem that I had with the book. He turned it into a fad diet book. I would say that 80% of the book is evidence from a neurological perspective. Then in the last 10% he adds a pretty lamb and skimpy diet outline and points you to his website to buy supplements and tests. It is hard to ignore the sale out factor of this. My advice - ignore this section of the book and focus on everything that came before. After all combined it is really only worth a half a star drop in rating.

If you read no other non fiction book this year then make it Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers. It is a great way to start of your new year for a new you.